In general, the business of a financial VAN company makes use of a card system of a VAN, which allows a card holder (consumer) a credit transaction through a terminal installed at a member store, ensures a consistent sales for member stores, and collects commissions (a VAN charge, a data communication expense, and an advertisement rate) incurred by the operation of the facilities from member stores.
That is, a financial VAN company collects settlement information and settles up between terminals (inquiry machine) installed at a member store and a credit or debit card company (the company which buys sales bills). At present, settlement information is transferred through VAN when purchase and use a credit or debit card. Also, a financial VAN company plays the role of settling a credit or debit card bill.
A credit or debit card, a means to pay for daily necessaries and consumptions without using cash, which was developed in the USA, had been evolved from a travelers' bill of credit to a travelers' check around 1900, and to a credit card (or a credit coin) which was spread widely until the latter of the 1920's. However, because of the economic depression from the Great Depression in 1929 to the World War II and restriction of consumer finance, the use of a credit card is strictly confined to bring stagnation. In using cards, the operating funds of a VAN company, a paygate company, and a credit or debit card company are raised fundamentally by installment interests of consumers or commissions from member stores, so that small settlement brings difficulties in providing services and disadvantage of low economical efficiency.
Referring to FIG. 1, a method of approving a transaction of a credit or debit card in accordance with conventional methods is briefly explained below.
A user 1 is a credit or debit card holder possessing a credit or debit card issued by a credit or debit card company 4, and a member store 2 has a connection only with a specific financial company 3 and is equipped with a normal CAT which sends settlement information. A CAT 2a and a relay system 3a of a financial VAN company are connected by a telephone network, and a relay system 3a and a transaction approval system 4a of a credit or debit card company are connected by a leased packet network.
A user 1 requests a purchase presenting a credit or debit card to pay for goods or services to a member store 2.
The member store 2 uses a CAT 2a to request approval to a credit or debit card company 4. The CAT 2a integrates user information recorded in the card, purchase information generated by the CAT 2a, and member store information, composing a transaction request message, and connects to a relay system 3a of a financial VAN company 3.
In this case, the transaction request message (user information, purchase information, and member store information) generated by the CAT 2a of the member store 2 is sent to the relay system 3a of the financial VAN company 3.
In order to approve the request, the relay system 3a of the financial VAN company 3, which receives the transaction request message, reads the information of the card company 4 from the transaction request message and sends a combination of the information related to the transaction request to a transaction approval system 4a of a card company.
The transaction approval system 4a of the card company 4 receives and stores the transaction request message, compares user information, purchase information, and member store information with the member information and the member store information of its own. If the user 1 and the member store 2 are qualified as business partners, the transaction between the two is verified.
The transaction approval system 4a of the card company 4 sends an approval message, i.e. a result of the transaction request, to the relay system 3a of the financial VAN company 3, which relayed the approval request, through a packet network.
The relay system 3a of a financial VAN company 3 stores the approval data and forwards it to the CAT 2a of the member store 2. The CAT 2a prints the result of payment on the bill and the receipt of a credit or debit card informing the user of the result based on the returned approval data (details on the result of the approval).
The member store 2 encourages the user 1 to use a credit or debit card, or utilizes advertisement marketing means of a cashback, points, and mileage to attract customers to the member store to increase sales.
Typically, as a means for marketing to attract customers to member stores, a portion of payment is accumulated as cash, mileage, or points and paid back to customers 1.
However, as described above, from the standpoint of a customer, in order to attain to a certain amount of money to satisfy the customer by accumulating a portion of money purchased, a lot of time and economic consumption are required. For a member store, since it pays for a commission as a member store, an outstanding marketing means to attract customers is required to overcome the member store commission.
That is, a way of customer compensation to satisfy both customers and member stores is acutely required in conventional methods of approving a transaction of a credit or debit card.
However, a receipt in a conventional technique has the disadvantages in that it is only a lottery printed on a receipt which cannot be used as a marketing means to attract customers to member stores, or a VAN market may not be used as a competitive means since a VAN company is a large company in a group or a small and medium sized company.
Korean Patent Application No. 2001-3937 discloses another method of issuing a receipt lottery. The patent application comprises steps of registering and administrating detailed information of a member store such as business registration number, store's name, and address; registering and administrating personal information of a customer; storing and administrating predetermined information printed on a receipt, a customer receives when they pay, which is issued by a member store, as a certified lottery number; and drawing the stored and administered certified lottery numbers, and giving cash or a prize to a customer.
The conventional method of issuing a receipt lottery uses only a business registration number of a member store, or an approval number of a credit or debit card used at a member store. It does not differentiate a financial VAN company, or does not present any customer compensation means or method which provides a big prize to a credit or debit card or cash user, or a member store, though a small amount of money is paid.